Chipotle: Friend or Faux?

Friend or Faux is Chipotle’s latest marketing campaign. It’s a game designed to let customers learn about the difference between Chipotle’s ingredients & the ones commonly used in other fast food chains.

You can choose your favorite Chipotle menu item and another fast food chain item. You then get quizzed on ~20 ingredients and you have to choose which restaurant contains X ingredient. There are no penalties for getting answers incorrect – it’s simply a learning experience. At the end of the quiz, you get to see your score and a complete breakdown of the ingredients in each menu item. The value is here. It’s wildly jarring to see 100% “friendly ingredients” in Chipotle and not only less “friendly ingredients” in other fast food restaurants but also over 50% “faux ingredients”.

Wondering what classifies as a “faux ingredient”? Here’s some in a “bean burrito” from a “fast food chain” – I think we can all guess which.

Artificial Flavor – A chemical mixture that mimics a natural flavor but is derived from synthetic sources, rather than natural sources like plants or animals.

Grossed out yet? I sure was. I guess that’s the point of this promotion!

So after you finish the quiz and are successfully anti-all fast food besides Chipotle, you simply enter your first + last name and your mobile #. You’re texted and asked to opt into Chipotle tweets (promised no more than 4 a month, and can unsubscribe at any time) and then you are texted a coupon for a BOGO (buy one, get one) free offer for a burrito, bowl, salad, or order of tacos. Additionally, you’re entered into a sweeps drawing, where 50 people will get Chipotle for you AND a friend for a YEAR.